Robert Girau had had about enough. A corporate manager for
Atlanta-based fast-food chain Wing Zone, he'd just spent 30
minutes on the phone with an irate customer who hadn't received
her order. "She said I was a liar," Girau says. She also
threatened him. But as an employee, Girau knew he had to keep his
cool and try to solve the problem. "It was frustrating,"
he says. "No matter what the customer is saying, you [have to]
try not to take it personally."

A lot of employees find themselves in Girau's shoes. After
all, every company has customers who can be overly demanding,
angry, even abusive. But, as the business mantra goes, the customer
is always right. For employees on the receiving end of a customer
interaction gone wrong, there's incredible pressure to simply
grin and bear it. Service with a smile is always good business.

Or is it? Alicia Grandey, an assistant professor of industrial
and organizational psychology at Penn State University in
University Park, studies the effects of "emotional
labor," what employees face when they must manage their
emotions on the job. She says employers need to be aware of how
stressful customer interactions are affecting the morale and health
of their employees.

Putting On The Mask

There are days when being on the front lines of a business can
be draining. Ask employees in industries from food service to
customer call centers, and they'll be able to recall their most
difficult customers in vivid detail. Girau has days in which he
receives five or six complaints. "By then, I know it's a
bad day," he says.

"Employees are expected to take whatever the customer doles
out," says Christine Pearson, research professor of business
management at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill's
Kenan-Flagler Business School and an expert on civility in the
workplace. Service workers, Pearson adds, tend to be seen as an
"impermeable buffer" between owners and customers off the
pressure that flows from above while smiling away the incivility
coming from the customer.

But "smiling away the incivility" might have ill
effects, literally. In late 1998, Grandey surveyed 168
administrative assistants to learn how they controlled their
emotions. She found that employees who faked a good mood were more
likely to suffer from emotional exhaustion and burnout. These
workers also received significantly lower marks on their customer
service abilities from co-workers. "Employees who constantly
must ignore their true feelings may become estranged or
alienated," Grandey says.

Laboratory research has also found physical effects from this
bottling-up of emotions: overworked cardiovascular and nervous
systems and weakened immune systems. In other words, stress, which
costs U.S. businesses millions every year in absenteeism, turnover,
replacement costs and health insurance.

Structured Solution

Matt Friedman, 29, CEO and co-founder of Wing Zone, has
witnessed the stress that angry customers can cause in his
employees, who take the majority of the company's food orders
over the phone. Friedman says his entry-level employees, who are
mostly college students, just don't have the experience needed
to handle these customers. Therefore, they've been trained to
hand off overly demanding customers to the nearest manager right
away. Wing Zone's managers then put the complaints back on the
customers, asking them how they'd like the company to handle
the problem. When both parties can't find some middle ground,
managers refer the customer to the corporate office's toll-free
number and Web site to file a formal complaint.

After 30 fruitless minutes on the phone with the angry customer
who threatened him, Girau referred her to the corporate office.
"I know that I will eventually deal with this customer
again," he says. How does he get through these difficult
situations? By staying calm in his responses. "I say what I
can do, but sometimes no answer will satisfy a customer,"
Girau says. "[Customer complaints] are just part of the
job."

Mark Csordos, 30, founder and president of Arden, North
Carolina-based Customer Service Training Essentials Inc., says that
dealing with demanding customers gets even tougher when leaders try
to treat all customer complaints equally. "Some complaints are
justified, and some are not," Csordos says. "If employees
get reprimanded for an unjustified complaint by an unreasonable
customer, they start to resent it because they did nothing
wrong.

Friedman knows it can be hard for managers to deal with the
frustration, especially when they know they're right. There are
times when he has to explain why making the customer happy is the
best thing to do. "Managers take it personally," he says.
His advice? Make the customer happy, but also let the employees
know that you support them.

Girau, who's the point man at corporate headquarters for
complaints that escalate, thinks the company's strategy works
because entry-level employees know how to handle angry customers,
managers understand what they can offer and have the flexibility to
problem-solve, and complaints with no easy solution can be routed
up the food chain. Having procedures to follow at the store level,
Girau says, has made life easier for everyone-including owners,
whose input he now needs only in the most extreme cases.

Empowering Employees

How do you keep your employees from shouldering all the burden
that comes with a difficult customer?

Service employees need to be empowered to make confident
decisions on the spot, says William Ward, Warehime professor of
business administration at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove,
Pennsylvania. "Employees need to be trained in
problem-solving," Ward says. "This is where training and
procedures pay off for businesses."

But employers can send mixed signals when they set time limits
on helping customers or mandate a long list of daily priority tasks
other than taking care of customers. These mixed signals increase
the chances that a problem won't be resolved, making it natural
for upset customers to unload on the closest target: the employee,
who is torn between serving the customer and finishing his or her
daily to-do list.

Another basic mistake is defining service with vague phrases
like "service is our mission" instead of creating
structures that guide employees through difficult customer service
situations. "You see a lot of service employees with that look
of 'Please don't ask me a question because I don't know
how to answer it,' " Csordos says. "If you're
unsure about what you're allowed to do for a customer, you feel
silly."

Patrick Marchese is co-founder and president of Santa Ana,
California-based Markzware, a 25-employee software development
company. He believes in giving the nine customer service
representatives in his company an arsenal for dealing with
difficult customers who call the company's toll-free
number.

Markzware's service employees know exactly how to route
difficult callers up the company chain. "We get someone else
in on the call right away," says Marchese. Employees also have
a lot of leeway to throw in freebies like T-shirts and software. A
little empowerment and teamwork can go a long way. "The
customer service rep doesn't feel isolated in handling a
problem," says Marchese, 41. "It's a big score
personally for employees to successfully handle a difficult
customer. When they get a thank-you at the end, they're on
Cloud 9."

Rate Yourself

How can you support your customer service employees so they
don't feel beleaguered by customer demands? If you answer no to
any of the following questions, it may be time to reassess your
customer service program and how it affects your employees'
morale:

1. Are employees empowered
to solve problems? Give your entry-level employees the
ability to offer concrete solutions. Telling them exactly what to
do boosts their confidence and morale.

2. Do you let service
employees vent their frustrations? Grandey says you need
to show employees you understand the challenges of working with the
public. There are a few ways to do this. One is by holding a weekly
meeting where service employees can talk openly about their most
difficult customer interaction that week. Along the way, not only
will you show support for their tough jobs on the front lines of
the company, but employees will also learn from each other how to
deal with customer problems that would otherwise leave them
flustered. Another strategy: Give a short break to the employee
who's just handled a particularly tough customer. He or she may
need it to regroup.

3. Are you on the front
lines? Employees will take notice when there's a
lack of involvement from company leaders in dealing with customer
complaints. Communicate and be involved. "Leaders want
customer service complaints to disappear," Csordos says.
"But don't leave employees holding the bag." That
means spending time on the floor or on the phones to get a feel for
their jobs. They'll appreciate it and feel more connected to
the company. You'll also get a better feel for your
customers.

www.customerservicetraining.com:
This site offers tutorials, articles and other information to help
you train employees in customer service.www.consultant-center.com:
This site includes articles on customer service topics.www.eps-i.com:
This is the homepage of consultant firm Employee Performance
Strategies Inc. in Chantilly, Virginia. It offers contact
information for consultants on various workplace issues, including
customer service strategies.